Chapter 2 - Personnel

Armed Forces Personnel Key Points and Trends

Strength and requirement

Both the required size and actual strength of the UK ’s Armed Forces have decreased.

  • At 1 April 2008 the total strength of the UK Regular Forces was 187,060 (see Table 2.7), a decrease of 38.8% from the 1 April 1990 strength of 305,750.
  • The 2008 strength is 1.8% lower than the 190,400 serving in 2007.
  • Four fifths of the total decrease in strength from 1990 to 2008 took place during the period 1990 to 1997 as the Armed Forces were restructured following the end of the Cold War (see Chart 2.7).
  • The requirement for the UK ’s full time trained Armed Forces officers has decreased 4.0% from 30,280 in 2003 to 29,070 in 2008. The equivalent decrease for the other ranks is 8.9% from 164,850 in 2003 to 150,190 in 2008 (see Table 2.9).
  • At 1 April 2008 the strength of the full-time trained Armed Forces was 173,960, 5,310 below the requirement of 179,270.

Intake and outflow

More people are leaving the Armed Forces than joining.

  • Intake and outflow figures over the time series presented are affected by the drawdown in strength from 1990 to 1997 after the Cold War.
  • Intake of civilians into the UK Regular Armed Forces has decreased 31.7% from 31,210 in the financial year 1990/91 to 21,330 in 2007/08 (see Table 2.19). The largest decrease took place between 1990/91 and 1997/98. From 1997/98 to 2007/08 intake figures have ranged between 17,590 and 23,610.
  • Total intake during the financial year 2007/08 intake was 7.8% higher than 2006/07; 21,330 compared with 19,790.
  • Outflow from the trained strength of the UK Regular Forces (see Table 2.24) has exceeded the number of new entries to the trained strength (Gains to Trained Strength) (see Table 2.22) for each of the last four financial years - 2004/05 to 2007/08.
  • Outflow from the UK Regular Forces to civil life has decreased by 36.8% from 39,080 in 1990/91 to 24,690 in 2007/08 (see Table 2.23). From 1997/98 to 2007/08 the number of personnel leaving has been relatively stable.

Ethnic Minorities

The percentage of ethnic minorities serving in the Armed Forces is increasing

  • The percentage of ethnic minorities in the UK Regular Forces has increased every year from 4.3% in 2003 to 6.1% in 2008, mostly due to an increase in the percentage of ethnic minorities in ranks Corporal and below (see Table 2.11).
  • The percentage of ethnic minorities joining the Army other ranks (the largest component of the UK Armed Forces) was 11.0% in 2007/08 – the highest of the five financial years shown.

Females

The percentage of females serving in the Armed Forces is increasing

  • The percentage of females in the UK Regular Forces has increased from 5.7% in 1990 to 9.4% in 2008 (see Table 2.13). The RAF has the highest percentage of female personnel (13.2% in 2008) followed by the Naval Service (9.5% in 2008) then the Army (7.8% in 2008) (see Table 2.13).
  • The percentage of people joining the untrained strength of the UK Regular Forces that are female has been steadily decreasing from 14.3% in 1997/98 to 9.9% in 2007/08 (see Table 2.21). The rate of the decline has been faster for other ranks (13.9% down to 9.2%) compared with officers (18.8% down to 17.1%).
  • The percentage of officers leaving in the UK Regular Forces that are female has increased from 9.9% from 1997/98 to 12.3 % in 2007/08. In contrast the percentage of other ranks leaving the UK Regular Forces that are female has decreased from 10.3% to 8.4% over the same period. (see Table 2.26). As the percentage of females in the Armed Forces increases the percentage of females leaving will also increase.

Location

The percentage of MOD personnel based outside the UK is stable.

  • The percentage of civilian and Service personnel1 stationed outside the UK has changed from 18.6% (60,420) in 1997 to 16.0% (41,340) in 2008 (see Table 2.4).

Reserve Forces

The strength of the Reserve Forces has remained more stable than the Regular Forces.

  • The strength of the cadet forces has decreased from 136.0 thousand in 1990 to 127.6 thousand in 2008. There was an increase in the strength of Army cadets but this was offset by larger net decreases in the number of Naval Service and RAF cadets (see Table 2.18).

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1.     Excluding personnel of unallocated location